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movies

Doomsday Machine (1972)

The Chinese have developed a doomsday device and the U.S. fears the will use it. A manned mission to Venus is stepped up. At the last minute three of the male crew are replaced with three female crew members. Once they are on there way to Venus the reason becomes apparent.

comment

Reviews

Reviewer: vonnoosh - 2.00 out of 5 stars 2.00 out of 5 stars - September 18, 2013
Subject: I'd like to know the behind the scenes story to this movie.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061592/trivia?ref_=tt_ql_2
imdb Trivia
Most of the movie was filmed in 1967 but due to a lack of financing it wasn't completed until 1972 when the producers had acquired enough money to complete the film, but without any of the original cast members. Lee Sholem was hired to direct the new footage.

Reviewer:vonnoosh -
favoritefavorite -
September 18, 2013 Subject:
I'd like to know the behind te scenes story to this movie.

CLEARLY this movie was a patch up job and it isn't a good one. The opening looks like it was made during the height of the (impossible to look good) 1970's to mid to later 1960's (I think '67) with everyone looking like they were from that period. The ending is right out of Bill Rebane's Monster A GoGo (another patchup job of a movie) with a voice over basically telling the ending. The original actors had to be long gone by the time they got around to filming an ending (1972?) so they had people in space suits with voiceover communication trying (in vain) to sound like the original cast members.

Hearing how the production died ad why in Gods name someone tried to save the original footage from complete film obscurity is something I'd like to know. I guess having Bobby Van, Grant Williams, and Ruta Lee was too much star power to leave in an unfinished film.

Incidentally, the man responsible for reviving this movie also was guilty of making movies like Smokey ad the Judge and Enter ANOTHER Dragon. You can guess where he was springing these movies off of

It appears that a couple of days were shot on this film before they ran out of money. Thats an old story in Hollywood, but, luckily for us all, it was picked up by David L. Hewitt and cobbled together with real NASA footage, special effects from Hewitt's Wizard of Mars and, incredibly, tons of stock spaceship shots from Toho's Gorath! Characters are traveling in a spacecraft unaware that the Earth is facing imminent doom and then only to find that the planet they have been chosen to settle and "start over" will make human's sterile from radiation poisoning. The sets are dreadful. The lighting makes me think of the 1966-69 Batman, which is guess is okay. Its a good cast of pretty well known actors who do a pretty good job with pretty awkward dialogue that mostly illustrates badly inaccurate science. One truly awful factor is that the exterior appearance of the spaceship is different every time it is shown. Sometimes a rocket, sometimes it is wheel shaped. All different shots from Gorath. Perhaps these are intended to be passing debris. Even the destruction of Earth is lifted from Gorath. It is apparent that the ending (and possibly the prologue) were shot by the second crew and do not feature actors from the rest of the film but bad doubles, in un-matching costumes with dubbed in voices that sound nothing like the original cast. Then the movie basically just stops. No climax or anything. It's as if the film broke. But there is probably not much else that could be done. Id love to see a fan made Special Edition with some CGI spaceship footage. Maybe redub the actors at the end. Kids with laptops can do anything these days.

Inane, insufferable, tedious, pointless, insulting and a complete disaster with no redeeming value or virtue. Other than this I liked it.

Three explanations have circulated for why this space gobbler seems to have been cobbled together by two entirely different production teams, which it was.

1. The original primary cast, realizing they were involved with an unmitigated disaster refused to show up for the final shoots.

2. The original cast walked off because they hadn't been paid.

3. The original producer didn't show up to shoot the final scenes because he was out of cash.

Later a different producer acquired the existing footage, and tacked on a few extra minutes of film to "complete" the story. I don't know which of the three versions is true, but somehow I hope it was the first, though it probably would be the most unlikely.

This movie has it all! Scary dialogue! One of the guys from M*A*S*H! Lots of interesting announcements over a variety of public address systems! Physical examinations! Gravity-defying sandwiches! "Home-made" water! Space misogyny!

Actually, it's not that good. But! At least watch the first five minutes for the scene where the undercover super spy throws a cat over a wall. Classic cinema!

Will soon be showing it with classic commercials on my site at http://act1nowplaying.com/DOOMSDAYMACHINE1972SCIFICOLOR1HR23MIN05042011.aspx Sci-Fi movies area.
Based on a couple of sour note reviews, I expected to fall asleep and it was late, but I stayed wide awake thru the entire movie. Then knowing more about the history of this film, makes it even better for me. Now 2001(1968 scifi) is about the most boring movie ever made, but this one has plenty of action and depth. Yes it has a few flaws, like a lot of campy stuff but Worth a watch to see this film that almost never was.

I'm pretty open minded and foregiving about these old sci-fi films, but this had no action (except a near rape- and even that was disappointing) Slow, tacky, not entirely poorly acted, but the "end"??? Just fell flat on it's ass. If you must see every sci-fi film ever made, sure, otherwise, don't invest your time. Just awefullll!!!!

You're right Skybandit, it is basically 2 movies. According to a review at IMDb the project was started in 1967 under the title "Armageddon 1975".
The project was scraped, shelved and never finished. Around 1972 an amateur film maker got the film and added about the last 10 minutes.

TERRIBLE film! Feels like a half-completed movie finished by somebody else, like "They Saved Hitler's Brain" or "Monster a Go Go." Just sort of petered out at the end with the two stranded astronauts CHANGING THEIR SPACESUITS (obviously footage lifted from an entirely different movie) before entering the derelict Ruski spacecraft, which was a cheap Revell model of the Apollo Command Module.
This print was either a recording off the television or edited from the Elvira collection, since fairly regular fades to black interrupt in the middle of scenes. Strangely enough, this doesn't really hurt the totally incoherent plot. Gave it one extra star for Casey Kasem as the DJ to the astronauts!